I work for a restauarant chain in IT department and working in that field for the past 15 years. I have electronics engineering masters and MBA from nearest town Louisville Ky (not an Ivy school but my GPA is near 4.0) . I am appearing for Level 3 next year. Here is the “but” situation, I just crossed 40 years and could not get any Finance / Equity research jobs here . Am I too late to party ? Tired of same old IT stuff but my passion is all about investments . Since you are all in level 3 you must have finance field experience, and dont want to post my question in general discussion area to avoid silly answers form new CFA candidates . As per CFA institute candidates I am an outlier and in the right end of the tail. Appreciate your responses. Thanks in advance
theres a party in my pants and youre not invited
stop trolling
Hi, Wally. You’re not going to make it in finance. At a certain point, you need to just accept what you have and be happy.
Wally23 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- . I > have electronics engineering masters and MBA from > nearest town Louisville Ky ( what is this supposed to mean? Muhammad Ali reigns supreme in Louisville, KY
First step; get out of Kentucky. With your lack of background you’re going to need to be in a place with more opportunities where you may be able to luck into an entry level spot. NYC, Boston, San Fran…
Yeah man, may be too late. If you’re passionate about investing, you can just invest your own money.
Wally23 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Here is the “but” situation, I just crossed 40 > years and could not get any Finance / Equity > research jobs here . Am I too late to party ? Well, it’s no-so-much that you’re too late to the party; rather, it’s simply that your timing is poor. Since 2008, there just haven’t been enough finance jobs to go around. Even for, say, 30-year-old CFA charterholders in NYC or San Fran. At some point in the future the economy will improve (probably in the next few years) and at that point you will have a better opportunity to break into finance. Until then, you may be stuck with the IT/engineering thing. Sit tight.
Right now, the CFA would certainly help you if you’ve ever considered sales: As a financial advisor or RIA if you can correctly and effectively convey the benefits of your charter to prospects it’s a great selling point. Alot of people start that career at 40. Not alot of people start as analyst at 40 and right now there are no jobs and it’s only going to get worse. keep the passion going though. I’m a little younger than you, but I’ve never even had a legit job
Why is everyone discounting this guy so quick? Ok, so he worked in IT, but he probably knows a thing or two about the chain restaurant business. If I were you, I would probably pitch myself to an analyst who covers Darden, Yum! Brands and the like. But you didn’t mention what you want to do in finance? Research?
It’s a tough sell. Given the environment, I don’t think moving to Boston or New York is going to be enough to get you into finance. There’s a lot of competition out there, and you’d have a hard time getting much attention. I would suggest one of two possible paths: 1. Become a retail investment advisor, then work your way up. At the end of the day, you have to convince clients that they should let you invest their money, or convince some broker or asset manager that you can help them invest their clients’ money. The CFA program doesn’t particularly teach you how to make that pitch, but that’s the challenge. There are plenty of potential clients right where you live. 2. Try to move into the finance chain in the corporate world. IT departments often report through the CFO. If you find the right place, you might be able to figure out how to make a transition to the finance side. I hope this helps.
hhummel Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It’s a tough sell. Given the environment, I don’t > think moving to Boston or New York is going to be > enough to get you into finance. There’s a lot of > competition out there, and you’d have a hard time > getting much attention. > > I would suggest one of two possible paths: > > 1. Become a retail investment advisor, then work > your way up. At the end of the day, you have to > convince clients that they should let you invest > their money, or convince some broker or asset > manager that you can help them invest their > clients’ money. The CFA program doesn’t > particularly teach you how to make that pitch, but > that’s the challenge. There are plenty of > potential clients right where you live. > > 2. Try to move into the finance chain in the > corporate world. IT departments often report > through the CFO. If you find the right place, you > might be able to figure out how to make a > transition to the finance side. > > I hope this helps. Just to be clear for Wally23’s sake, while it is certainly one route into the industry, it is 90% sales. Not to mention it is a long road with a really high washout rate.
bpdulog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why is everyone discounting this guy so quick? Ok, > so he worked in IT, but he probably knows a thing > or two about the chain restaurant business. If I > were you, I would probably pitch myself to an > analyst who covers Darden, Yum! Brands and the > like. Most analysts prefer to hire associates with equity research experience, finacial modeling skills, maybe an MBA from a top school, the CFA charter, etc. In a red-hot economy, an analyst is going to struggle to find somebody like this, and will be forced to hire an associate with less experience and credentials. In today’s environment however, the hiring analyst will not have to compromise very much at all. A candidate without relevant experience (like Wally) is not going to stand a chance against the other candidates that are applying.
your in a tough situation. having passed all three cfa exams with no experience is not going to get you far in a finance job. You wont even be able to use the cfa with your name. and need 4 years to go before you can have it beside your name. the thing that i think will cause you the most problems is not finding a job as entry level analyst/ trader/ etc but taking a hair cut on your salary that your use too, to take an entry level finance job. And at your age thats tough to swallow.
and you gotta move to the big cities if you want to pursue a successful job in the finance world NYC and SF End of story
My view would be to look at smaller niche investment houses and try to get something that way. The big outfits will have a filter called HR and they will ensure you don’t get by. Try to network through local societies, etc, and maybe get connections that way. Try writing a few articles, maybe blog. Share your thoughts. Make people recognise you are more than your age and past experience. Anyway, as the saying goes; “You have only failed when you stop trying.” If it’s your dream do not give up. That said, as a veteran of too many years in investments, it isn’t the holy grail but there are plenty of other less interesting fields to work in and plenty of fields that don;t reward as well so on the whole its worth pursuing.
Thanks for your honest responses. You folks are great. Today Steve jobs retired from CEO position, I read Steve’s Stanford university speech in 2005 at WSJ. later I googled for his speech. Here are the links for both text and video. http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576520690515394766.html?mod=WSJPRO_hps_MIDDLESecondNews Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
with your educational background, i think quantitative finance would be a good option
Johnnyboyasu Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > your in a tough situation. having passed all three > cfa exams with no experience is not going to get > you far in a finance job. You wont even be able to > use the cfa with your name. and need 4 years to go > before you can have it beside your name. > > the thing that i think will cause you the most > problems is not finding a job as entry level > analyst/ trader/ etc but taking a hair cut on your > salary that your use too, to take an entry level > finance job. And at your age thats tough to > swallow. Taking a hair cut isn’t a big problem, HR is.
bpdulog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Why is everyone discounting this guy so quick? Ok, > so he worked in IT, but he probably knows a thing > or two about the chain restaurant business. If I > were you, I would probably pitch myself to an > analyst who covers Darden, Yum! Brands and the > like. > > But you didn’t mention what you want to do in > finance? Research? In every one of these threads there is always a post or two like this one. And while there is always the story that goes something like “But I know this one guy that got into finance with 0 experience”. Realistically though, the answer right now is: no way. Skimming through financial news the past few months, all you see are large layoffs at nearly all the investment banks. And not just back office accountants, but bankers, traders, equity sales, asset management… etc So, not only has new hiring come to a halt for finance, there is a huge pool of experienced and qualified people to choose from: all looking for a job. And I bet a large majority of that pool will be willing to take a step down in pay or title just to get a job again in today’s horrible market. If you are a firm, and by some chance had an opening, you have a huge pool of finance talent to choose from. What are the chances you would choose a 40 year old guy who worked in IT for 15 years with 0 finance experience? pretty much none. At least the guy in the other thread had a CPA, that has some advantages for research. I know an associate in research looking to move to another firm, he’s been a fully certified research associate for 4 years, and has been looking to switch (employed people have better luck looking for a job right now), he says it was going ok, but the last few months, hiring has literally totally dried up. It just suddenly got really bleak. experience will ALWAYS beat out passing a couple CFA levels.